Cosmetic products such as antiperspirants and deodorants are typically packaged in what is referred to as swivel-up or elevator/threaded-shaft dispensing packages. An example of such a package is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,094 issued to Yorks on Aug. 21, 1990. Another example of such a package is described in pending and commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 07/760,661 by Dornbusch et. al. filed Sep. 16, 1991, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Such packages typically have a body with an oval cross-section having a threaded shaft axially oriented therein and rotatably mounted at the bottom end through an aperture. This threaded shaft is typically connected to a hand wheel on the exterior of the package's bottom for advancing the stick product out of the package. An elevator or follower is threadably mounted to the shaft on the interior of the package at its bottom. Turning the hand wheel in a predetermined direction will either advance the elevator towards the top of the package or retract it back towards the bottom. The cosmetic product is typically poured into the package in its liquid or molten state, with the elevator in its lowermost position, whereby upon cooling the product solidifies and takes on the shape of the package. Thereafter, to dispense the stick form product from the package one turns the hand wheel thereby rotating the threaded shaft and advancing the elevator towards the top of the package. As the elevator advances toward the top of the package it pushes the stick form product up and out of the top of the package so the user can have access.
Recently, in order to reduce the consumption of natural resources and reduce solid waste landfill volume there has been a desire to make elevator/threaded-shaft dispensing packages partially reusable so that the entire package does not have to be thrown away after the initial product is used up. One way to accomplish this is to design a package that has a reusable base designed to receive a refill cartridge containing the solid stick form product. After the initial product in the package is used up, the initial refill cartridge is discarded and a new a refill cartridge is inserted into the reusable base, thereby rendering the package partially reusable. Applicants do not know of any elevator/threaded-shaft packages designed to be used for antiperspirants or deodorants that employ a refill cartridge. However, refill cartridges for lipsticks have been known for some time.
An example of a refillable lipstick container is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,921,675 issued to Clark et. al. on Jan. 19, 1960. Clark discloses a tubular lipstick package having what is referred to as a spiral shell propulsion system. A carrier or elevator for the lipstick is propelled upon the relative rotation of two tubular members of a reusable container. The refill cartridge of the Clark invention includes the carrier or elevator as an integral part. When the cartridge is placed in the container the two tubular members need to be rotated in order to retract the lipstick cartridge into the container. For small cosmetic products such as lipstick the container would at most need only about three rotations to bring the lipstick from its uppermost position, when being loaded into the base, to its lowermost position so as to retract the product within the container. However, for larger stick-form products such as deodorants using a typical elevator/threaded-shaft dispensing package, the hand wheel would need to be rotated a number of times in order to take the stick product from its uppermost position to its lowermost position. That is whenever a new cartridge is to be loaded into a reusable base the consumer would need to take the time to rotate the hand wheel a number of times in order to load the cartridge. This is a drawback in that many consumers would rather use a non-reusable package than have to go through so much effort to install a refill cartridge.
An example of of a replaceable lipstick container wherein the lipstick cartridge can be readily pushed into place is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,429,643 issued to Seaver on Feb. 25, 1969. Seaver discloses a replaceable lipstick container that can use a elevator/threaded-shaft propulsion system for the lipstick. However, the propulsion system of the Seaver invention is self-contained within the disposable cartridge. This means that the threaded-shaft and the elevator are thrown away with the cartridge. This approach does little to minimize solid waste. As many parts of the package as possible should be reusable so that the consumption of natural resources and solid waste land-fill volume is reduced.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an elevator/threaded shaft dispensing package for cosmetic stick-form products wherein only part of the package is disposable rendering the remainder reusable.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a package having a reusable base designed to receive a refill disposable cartridge wherein a new reusable cartridge containing product can be readily inserted into the base without having to manipulate the hand wheel.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a package wherein most of the elevator/threaded shaft dispensing system is part of the reusable base and not a part of the disposable refill cartridge.
The aforementioned and other objects of the invention will become more apparent hereinafter.